“The Cloud” is the IT buzzword of the moment but what does it mean for you and your business/organisation?
One of the key business applications is email and has become a critical part of most organisations. As your business grows or as you want to work more flexibly such as from different locations and perhaps even share your calendar with other people, then you need an email server. Instead of having an expensive “box” sitting away in the corner of the office, the email server can be “hosted” somewhere in the internet.
If you’ve used Google’s Gmail, then this is an example of cloud computing. All sorts of applications can be placed out on the internet for users to access such as database systems for tracking client interactions (CRM), places to store your files, business capable instant messaging, and list goes on and is ever increasing.
The advantages are that you can sign-up easily to these services online and access them via a web browser or an application installed on your PC/Laptop/Mobile, you have no hardware to run yourself and nothing to maintain and it can be very cost effective way of building your IT infrastructure.
Cloud computing is here to stay and is important to consider these solutions as part of your overall IT infrastructure. We support Microsoft’s cloud solutions called Office365 and is something that we use ourselves to provide a robust and scalable IT system.